The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-12-14
GIRLS AMONG BONDS.
An Industry in which Women
are Superior to Men.


Those are the girls who make mon
ey,p remarked gentleman As a long line
of girls came laughing and chatting out
of big building. They were happy and
cheerful and as handsomely dressed and
jauntily arrayed as il they were just ma
king their exit from mitinee. A re-
porter ventured up to the eighth floor of
the big building to see the money max
ing process.
Seated at their desks in the company's
office are the young ladies who act as ac-
countants and timekeepers. They are
experts at figures and the whole business
of the department has been reduced to
such system that almost alta glance the
cost of everything that enters into the
work, even to the gum on the back of a
stamp, can be ascertained.
A door to the left was opened, and
disclosed te view ten or dozen girls en-
giged in verifying numbersand counting
perfected work. Here great skill and
Z quick perception are required. Sharp
eyes run with the speed of lightning
down the long rows Of coupons and veri-
| fy the numbers, while other eyes, equal
" as quick, examine each sheet and il is
passed along or tossed out as imperfect,
until the finished work reaches the
counter by whom it is bundled, mark
ell and certified with her signature II
then goes to the great safe, where it is
receipted for, and the work is finished
MILLIONS OF SECURITIES.
Standing in this safe, surrounded by
millions of securities, including many of
the South and Central American repub-
lies. as well as those of innumerable cor
porations in the United States and Eu-
rope; the process of engraving and print
ing was explained from the time the
blank paper left the stock room until it
reached this safe in its finished condi-
ton. The whole business is conducted
on a series of orders and receipts. and
not sheet or scrap of paper can 90
astray from the time it enters the estab-
lishment until it is ready for delivery.
Indeed, when the safes and fireproof
vaults are locked at night there isn't pa
per enough about the establishment for
mouse to make bed
Although European competition is large
this country secures the better class of
bond and banknote work, for in no other
land has engraving in this special line
reached such perfection. To-day the
money makers of the United Stats stand
at the head of the list, its inventive geni-
us having solved many of the problems
Of defeating the imitator anG the coun-
terfeiter Here, for instance, is q bond
of Cuba. On the back is map of the
island, and in the net of scrool work the
word Cuba is woven 5000 times. II
is, however. but sample of many 9th
ers, the counterfeiting of which is abso-
lutely impossible. In the passage of each
one of these sheets of paper through the
house it has been subjected to fifty-two
countings from as many different per
sons. Every spoiled and defective sheet
has also been accounted for
The engraving rooms, Where skillful
artists were at their work the process
by which the engraved plates were trans
ferred to the steel press plates and har-
dened the geometrical lathe for en-
craving scroll work, which cannot be du-
plicated by hand the printing and the
ink rooms-all were visited, as were also
the great iron vaults, containing hun
dreds of perfect plates, from which an
average of 100000 each of securities
have been printed
IN THE ENGRAVING ROOMS.
And except in the heavier parts of the
business and in the engraving rooms the
girls who make money were everywhere
They were met in the halls and rooms
of the building, their arms burdened
with bundles of securities, which they
were transporting on their way. to ,er-
fection, the amount in hand being great
the rooms running numbering machines,
n counters, pinners, hyero and in the
press room, where each girl was assisting
" her man" in running the press, by
damping, laying and flying the sheet,
while "her man applied the ink, pre-
pared the plate and did the presswork
In this department each girl speaks of
the pressman as her man. the two
working together, and when one is alb
sent the other, perforce, is idle also. In
fact, whenever girls are employed in the
mechanical departm mt of making money
they appear as mans assistant and help
mate. In the tower ofthe building there
was a perfect beehive of girls bard at
wark examining and preparing the mon
ey on the tables before them, and happy
and cheerful looking ladies they were,
too, as were about all employed in the
establishment.
There, too, you find pure, unadultera-
ted democracy. The girl who is engaged
in counting $4,000 bandsand examining
their coupons, does not think herself
bit more elevated than one who is as
sorting ten-cent notes, nor does she feel
herself justified in drawing invidious
distinctions. She knows in this mimic
ry, as in real life, the whirligig Of time
may throw the bonds into the lap of her
companion, and give her the small
change as her portion.
The very character of the work pre-
cludes the possibility of much talking.
The eye. the touch, and the mind must
be intent on the work in hand, for negii-
gence or inattention is certain to be de-
tected at the next stage the money takes
in transit.
Why do you employ girls in the pro-
cess of money making instead of men
and boys asked the reporter of his
guide.
Because they are quicker of percep-
ton. have more delicate sense of touch.
and are more tractable than boys In
fact, girl of Il, If suited 10 our employ. |
has the fixed habits of a man of p, com